Chapter 3: Fallen Gods
"You might as well come out," a cocky male voice sneered, "I know you're hiding around here somewhere, and I'm going to find you and kill you, so you might as well show yourself."
Rukia crept to the front of the cave, taking up a position at Renji's side and watching as the white clad form outside poked around the area, prodding bushes and hopping into the branches of trees, where he paused and scanned the area from up higher. The redhead gave his slighter comrade a questioning look, which Rukia read as "Do you think he's serious, or is he full of shit?" The female shinigami's violet eyes darkened and narrowed as she observed the quincy carefully. He continued to whack at the bushes and complain, kicking at the rocks.
"Do you see, Renji?" Rukia breathed softly, "He's ambling around like he's not sure where we are, but bit by bit, he's getting closer and closer."
Renji's lips curved back in a sneer and his fingers curled around the hilt of his sword.
"We're probably going to have to fight him, then," he concluded.
"Probably," Rukia agreed, placing her hand on the hilt of her own weapon, "but we need to be really careful. We're not at full strength and we have to protect Tetsuya-san, since he's so badly injured and he can't fight at all."
"We may have a problem, since we can't fight in this cave, but we also can't leave him."
"Don't worry about me," Tetsuya said softly, making the other two shinigamis catch their breath at his sudden appearance at their side, "I am badly injured and I can't move around a lot, but I am able to use my innate ability to hide myself from view."
"Hey!" Renji hissed, staring, "weren't you over there, half-dead a minute ago? How did you get over here?"
"Tetsuya-san, you shouldn't be on your feet," Rukia objected more softly, "You'll put too much strain on that wound and it will start bleeding again."
"It's all right," Tetsuya assured them, "I've regained enough strength to move around a little and to use powers that don't require reiatsu flow. That's why I can shield myself from being seen."
He glanced down to where a small amount of blood was already leaking from under his bandages.
"If I had more reiatsu, I could shield you as well, however…"
"Renji and I will be all right," Rukia assured him, "Just hide yourself as well as you can and let us fight if we can't just avoid this guy."
Tetsuya knelt at the cave entrance, holding one hand to his wounded chest while following the quincy's seemingly rambling movements intently.
"I think Rukia-chan was right that, random as his movements might seem, this quincy is honing in on our location. He will find us soon. Unfortunately, it will be difficult for either of you to slip out of the cave unnoticed. Anyway, he is probably aware that he can find you by either searching as he is, or just flushing you out."
"What do you think we should do?" Rukia asked.
Renji gave her a baffled look.
"Why are you asking a healer something like that?" he complained, "Look…"
"You idiot!" Rukia scolded him furiously, "Didn't you listen to what I told you about Tetsuya-san before?"
"Huh…I uh…" Renji stammered, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck.
"I told you that Tetsuya-san was entrusted with guarding the encampment. Do you honestly think that my brother would entrust the safety of our family to a simple healer?"
"Eh…well…"
"Of course he wouldn't!" Rukia snapped, "Tetsuya-san is also Nii-sama's bodyguard, a man so skilled and so stealthy, he could kill you before you knew he was there!"
"Um, s-sorry, Tetsuya-san," Renji said sheepishly, "I didn't mean to insult you."
"Oh, it's fine," Tetsuya answered, giving him an amused look.
"If you're finished underestimating my cousin," Rukia said, crossing her arms and scowling, "we should really be focusing on how not to get killed by that approaching quincy."
"But I…"
"It's okay," Tetsuya said softly, looking out at the approaching enemy, "I have an idea."
"See?" Rukia scoffed, "This is why he is the brains of this operation and you're not!"
"Take that back!" Renji hissed.
Tetsuya's pained grimace eased slightly and he gave the two a look of forced patience.
"Would you two like to hear this before or after that quincy arrives and slaughters us?"
Rukia and Renji exchanged scowls, then turned their attention to Rukia's cousin.
"This is how I see it," Tetsuya explained, "I neither have the capacity to conceal us all nor to escape, but I can do something to enable the two of you to gain a tactical advantage."
"What do you want us to do?" asked Renji, moving closer to him.
"I am going to use my waterform to slip out of here and head away from this place. I want you to keep an eye on the enemy and when I relinquish my waterform…"
"Wait a minute! What?" Renji objected, "Tetsuya, you can't…"
"I have to," the sapphire-eyed man insisted, "If that quincy turns his full attention on all of us, we are going to lose. Everything I have seen of the quincies and their odd powers suggests this, however, some of our fighters have had success in attacks that occur while the quincies are, themselves, attacking. You will need to watch the quincy and wait for him to start his attack…"
"Ah," Renji said, rubbing his chin and frowning, "we need to be fast enough that the blow never lands."
"And," Rukia added, "the attack has to be powerful enough to drop him in one hit."
The two longtime friends nodded together.
"We can do it," Rukia affirmed.
"Just, uh, hey…y'know, be careful out there," Renji cautioned Tetsuya, who blinked in surprise at the warning, "The quincies aren't just strong. They're wicked fast too. Their hirenkyaku makes them as fast as the ones of us who use the flash step."
"I will be cautious," Tetsuya promised, a little flush touching his cheeks at the intensity of the redhead's gaze.
He took a steadying breath, then turned and headed out of the cave.
XXXXXXXXXX
"You look pale," Haschwald observed as realization washed over Byakuya's face, draining the color away, "even more so than before. You understand now, don't you? You are no longer a shinigami. You have been granted a new and more powerful form, with which you will serve your new master."
"That monster is not now, and will never be, my master," the noble said in a low, angry voice as he stared into the bedside mirror, "I will not give my consent to this."
"Again, you fail to understand," the quincy commander sighed, his eyes oddly sad, "Does the sun refuse to warm the planet? Does the flower that is touched by the sun and nourished with soil and water, refuse to grow? You were recreated with a purpose, Byakuya. And like the rest of us, you will have no choice but to fulfill that purpose. Still, the clouds do not hold back when the rain needs to fall and the seasons occur peacefully in their order. You should not weep for the chaos that is ending because of this war. You should embrace things being put back in order…the pieces playing their part to build his majesty's new world."
Byakuya sighed and closed his eyes, no longer able to bear the sight of himself
"And given the horror that will sit on the throne, what kind of world is that going to be?" Byakuya countered, opening his dark, brooding eyes and fastening them on Haschwald's brighter, solemn ones.
"Come now," Haschwald chided him but gently, "you of all people, knows the travesty that already sits on the shinigami throne. Don't you also say that you bear that travesty because you are trying to preserve the world you know? Is that world not good despite the half dead monarch puppet who barely holds your world together?"
Byakuya held Haschwald's gaze a moment longer, then his head bowed.
"The state of the king is egregious," he capitulated, "but it was never my intent to simply accept his rule as fate."
Haschwald's breath caught slightly and he blinked in surprise.
"You were working secretly to overthrow your own king?" he asked in a shocked tone.
"Not to overthrow the king," Byakuya corrected him, "but to shed light on the truth."
Haschwald pulled a chair over and sat down as Byakuya moved to the edge of the bed and sat facing him.
"All of the noble leaders know…" the noble continued, "that in the first quincy blood war with the shinigamis, the shinigami king disappeared along with his consort, and the badly injured quincy king was captured. This is what you refer to when you call our king a travesty."
"Yes," the quincy commander agreed, blinking more slowly.
"Squad Zero and the noble leaders of the time knew that something was needed to continue to hold our worlds together. They, in turn, used their fallen enemy to create the lie that replaced our king. It was then that the defeated quincy king was encased in that crystal housing and placed in the cocoon shaped palace that replaced the shinigami king's lost world in the heavens. The truth is that no one, not even the replacement king, knows the true fate of the original Reio. When that last war ended, Reio and his consort, my ancestor, Kuchiki Hajime, were missing…and so was the ancient artifact known as…the king's prism."
Haschwald's breath caught more sharply and his hand shot out and wrapped tightly around Byakuya's slender wrist.
"You have access to the king's prism?" he hissed, his golden eyes glinting.
"I said that the artifact was lost," Byakuya repeated.
The quincy commander's pale eyes peered into his.
"Yes, you did," Haschwald agreed, "but…"
The quincy commander paused and gave the noble a meaningful look.
"I see something in your eyes that tells me it is not necessarily as lost as everyone thought. Is that true, Byakuya? Do you know where the king's prism is?"
"If I did, do you think I would tell you where it was?" Byakuya inquired archly.
Haschwald sighed and shook his head.
"Do you really still not understand your position, Byakuya?" he asked, his frown deepening, "You cannot withhold anything at all from his majesty. That is the truth of it. No matter what knowledge you have, he will take it and use it according to his will. So, if you know where the artifact is, then you might as well tell me, or he will remove it from you in a much more painful extraction."
"Do you think I am afraid of pain?" Byakuya hissed, his steely eyes glinting, "I assure you, I am not. Not of pain, not of death, and I know that no matter what he threatens, there is no fate worse for anyone than to yield anything to help him. He may take it from me, but I think you and I both know that for some reason, Ywach doesn't want me dead. Doesn't that make you curious?"
Haschwald gazed at him silently for several long moments, then he began to answer, only to find himself unable as Ywach opened the door to the room and stepped inside.
"Your majesty," he said, dropping to one knee and bowing his head.
The king's solemn eyes focused for a moment on Byakuya, and the noble made a sound of shock as an unseen force brought him down on his back and held him fast against the surface of the bed.
"Rise, Commander," the quincy king said calmly, "It is evening. It is time for you to assume the mask of the king."
Byakuya's eyes narrowed and an icy feeling of dread passed through him.
The mask of the king?
He watched in dismay from where he laid, restrained on the bed, as Haschwald rose to his full height and stood, facing the quincy monarch. White light swirled around the two, and as it swelled and began to pulsate, the noble's eyes widened at the looks of torment both of the quincies wore during the exchange. After several torturous minutes, Haschwald stiffened sharply, then his pale eyes darkened and his expression slowly eased. Ywach nodded briefly, dismissing the commander, then as Haschwald turned and exited the room, he walked slowly to the bed and looked down at the noble. Byakuya looked back at him in calm defiance.
"I see," said the king, "You are strong-willed. But you will soon realize that your will is meaningless here."
Calm hands opened Byakuya's clothing, baring the noble's lovely, pale form, and Ywach stood, gazing down at him with an unreadable expression.
"Do you understand what you are now?" he asked.
Byakuya glared back at him and said nothing in answer.
"You are a quincy," Ywach continued, "You have been crafted to be so, by the hand of the quincy king."
"The king," Byakuya breathed softly, his eyes blinking slowly, "You are no king. At very least, you are not mine."
To his surprise, Ywach smiled.
"No," he agreed, "right now, I am not. By day, I am king, but by night, I am father of the quincies. Look around me. Do you see them, Byakuya?"
The noble's breath caught as he suddenly spotted the pale forms that floated around the quincy king.
"All of the quincies and all of the shinigamis who died today are coming to join with me. They will gift me with their reiatsu, all of their knowledge, and all of their powers. In this way, all of them will come to serve me. In this way, my knowledge and my power will continue to grow.
Byakuya's scowl deepened.
He must give to Haschwald the mask of the king while he does this? Does this mean that Ywach is more vulnerable at night? Still, even if he is more vulnerable, his powers as king are in Haschwald's body.
I need to think about this.
"You look confused," Ywach said as he very slowly opened his own clothing, "but that is to be expected. You have been through a lot today, with your society being destroyed, your cousin dying in front of you and finding yourself altered to suit my needs. I will only have you endure one more thing before allowing you to sleep, Byakuya."
"You would soil the body of the soul king's servant?" Byakuya asked coldly.
"You are not his servant," Ywach answered with equal iciness, his hand sliding down Byakuya's bared body and beginning a slow, methodical preparation, "I have taken you from him. I have altered you to serve my needs. You are now mine, and you will never need to bother with your former king again."
He withdrew his fingers and climbed onto the bed, then laid down on top of the restrained man, positioning himself, then entering in short, gentle thrusts.
"Do I look afraid to you?" Byakuya asked angrily.
"Not at all," Ywach praised him warmly, pausing as their bodies were fully joined, "You look perfect, Byakuya. You are every bit the best choice to be my consort. Do you think I want some weak, beaten little thing like the shinigami you were? No, I prefer this much stronger and more beautiful form. Soon, you will come to embrace your role in my new dynasty."
"I will never embrace you, or anything you have to offer," the noble spat, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes as the father of the quincies caressed his face and began thrusting.
Does he really think that changing my form and raping me will break down my will? Or does my will and everyone else's just not matter to him, because he fancies himself stronger and smarter than everyone?
And what is this connection that he has with Haschwald? Why must he relinquish the mask of the king to receive the souls that have died?
He shivered and his jaw clenched harder as the quincy king's thrusts became gradually more powerful and Ywach groaned with intense pleasure and began to climax. But while he had been prepared for the possibility of being captured and raped by an enemy, Byakuya was sure that nothing could prepare him for the explosion of molten heat that struck his restrained body, dragging an agonized scream from deep in his chest as Ywach climaxed. For a moment, chaos took over, and he felt himself dragged to the very edges of his sanity. He began to lose consciousness and even with his eyes closed, he sensed that the man on top of him was smiling.
"Do you understand now, Byakuya?" Ywach panted, his black, powerful eyes boring through Byakuya's closed eyelids and seeming to invade the very depths of his soul, "You are mine now, and no matter what, you will serve me, in whatever way I see fit. What you desire and what you are…mean…nothing."
No.
I refuse.
With my last breath, I will continue to resist you!